I just met another parent who lost their only child to the poor quality of medicine in Colorado. People think this will not happen to me. This will not happen to my child in Colorado. It happens everyday in this state, children and adults are allowed to be tortured and killed in Colorado by medical professionals and for years Colorado protects them!

Not only do they value an adult life at about 426,000 dollars, BUT this disgusting state says, a child is worthless because they have no earning potential. It gets even worse. Colorado does not allow for punitive damages. They do not recognize the pain and suffering of all the mothers and fathers when their children are killed.

This state continues to say, that my child’s days of pain and suffering are gone, because he is dead!! What I watched my child endure, screaming in pain for days as all the doctors stood by a and watched because a person could not read simple instructions printed on the side of a bottle of Clonidine powder.

NO AMOUNT OF MONEY CAN BE PLACED ON A LIFE! SADLY, THAT IS ALL AMERICANS PAY ATTENTION TO. Money.

Americans think, oh they got millions it must be a wrongful death or they got millions those medical professionals must have done something wrong. If no money is won, then Americans think, oh they did not do anything wrong. THIS is how people think. Lots of money=guilty or No money= not guilty

MONEY is the only thing people listen to or see as a threat. Colorado has long protected these negligent people straight up to the Attorney Generals Office and the DORA/ Division of Professions and Occupations. They will not let these horrible pharmacists, pharmacies, doctors, and hospitals even get a mark on their license. They allow them to keep endangering both adults and children with bad medicine!

****There was a bill that was voted down this past spring 2017 in Colorado. A parent who lost his son to bad doctors, a 6 year old boy I think. He tried to pass a bill in Colorado and this state voted it down.

STOP COLORADO! STOP PROTECTING THESE MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS THAT KILL ADULTS AND CHILDREN! JUST BECUASE IT IS A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL IT IS STILL MURDER!

A child’s life in Colorado worthless. Not just poor children, all children! A $300,000 damages cap in Colorado. Don’t get excited about 300 grand, they subtract medical bills, and again if the person dies their pain and suffering is gone!

Enough Colorado! My child along with many others should be alive! You killed my little boy! I want you all to lose your licenses and go to jail! That is what I really want! All to lose your careers for what you did to my son! All of you face charges!

A year and a half later:

*Detective Henry Stucky has NOT charged anyone with “failure to report”. None of the pharmacists or doctors reported a child overdosed to the authorities. They all failed as mandatory reporters.

*DORA and the Attorney General have NOT done anything with 5 charges and everyone involved still has licenses.

*The Larimer County Coroner did not do his job. Where are my son’s tissues?

*No one has been held accountable for the days of torture of my child.

This is not just about Jake Steinbrecher, it is about all children in Colorado! All lives in Colorado, this state does not value life, adults and absolutey has no value for children.

Again, the only threat people listen to is money. We all know the USA would not allow doctors or pharmacists to do hard jail time for criminal neglegence. Colorado change the laws. Tell these pharmacists, nurses, and doctors if they kill someone they will be held accountable!

Coloradoans here is the law. Educate yourself! Adult life once dead, a few hundred grand. A child’s life less!

Note: The one million dollar cap is if you survive and are disabled. Don’t get excited they take out medical bills first.

Yes. Like a lot of other states, Colorado has passed a number of laws that put limits on the amount of compensation that a patient can receive even after a jury has found that an error by a doctor or other health care professional liable caused the patient’s injuries.

Colorado is a little unique in that the state actually has two damage caps on med mal cases.

First, there is a $1 million “umbrella” cap on the total amount of compensation that a medical malpractice plaintiff can receive, whether economic losses — which includes payment of past and future medical bills, as well as compensation for lost income and reduced earning capacity — or non-economic losses, which we’ll explain in more detail below.

A plaintiff might be able to get around Colorado’s $1 million cap if there is good cause for doing so and the court finds that application of the cap would be unfair under the specific circumstances of the case, but any amount in excess of $1 million will typically be limited to compensation for future medical care and future earnings.

The second Colorado law you need to know about sets a damage cap of $300,000 on non-economic damages in a medical malpractice case. Non-economic damages are those that aren’t as easy to quantify or capture with a dollar amount. That includes compensation for “pain and suffering,” loss of enjoyment of life, fear and anxiety, sleeplessness, scarring, disfigurement, and other subjective negative consequences of the defendant’s medical malpractice.

The doctor prescribed the liquid correctly and sent it via computer to having the medication compounded at Good Day Pharmacy in September 2015. Rx: 0.03 mg/2 ml. In a liquid form. At the end of October I called in a refill. On October 31, 2015 at about 11:00 am, Jake received his first dose from the new bottle. Jake complained that the medicine tasted bad. Within 30 minutes of receiving the medication, Jake complained of feeling dizzy and fell asleep.

At about 11:35 am I called the pharmacy. A man answered the phone, Joseph Poling pharmacist. I explained what had happened and asked if he could check if the medication was made correctly. He suggested that the bottle was maybe not shaken, and that my son had received a little more of the Clonidine. I was not comfortable with this answer.

I insisted to bring my son into to the pharmacy right away, and to show pharmacist, Joseph Poling, that Jake was in a deep sleep. Joseph Poling turned us away and told me, “We did not shake the bottle.” I knew the pharmacy was about to close. I kept calling Joseph Poling to inform him this does not sound right. Again I called the pharmacy and asked, “If the prescription had been made correctly?” He told me, “yes, according to the log book it was made correctly.” The pharmacy was closing at noon. The pharmacy manager Joseph Poling and a pharmacist, advised me on the phone to let Jake sleep for a couple of hours and watch him, and that according to the log the prescription was made correctly. I was told again, you must not have shaken the bottle enough. The pharmacy manager said, if Jake did not improve after a couple of hours sleeping to contact his doctor. Joseph Poling admitted he was in a rush that day and wanted to go home.

Jake was watched very closely while he slept over the next couple of hours. It was Halloween, one of Jake’s favorite holidays. (Jake never got to wear his costume.) Jake didn’t wake up, in fact, he fell into a deeper sleep. I pinched his feet and hands and there was no response. I knew it had to be the new bottle of Clonidine! I tasted the tip of the bottle and it burned my tongue!

We immediately went to MCR emergency room. I rushed Jake in, carrying my unconscious son in my arms, unresponsive. An intravenous catheter was placed and initial labs were drawn.

It was becoming apparent at that time that my son was having a serious medical emergency. I informed the doctors there was something seriously wrong with his new bottle of Clonidine. I was told that the liquid was already adsorbed in Jake’s system, and no activated charcoal could be used. No vomiting was induced.

The decision was made to transfer him to Poudre Valley Hospitalpediatric care unit. He was transported by ambulance, and we arrived about 7­ pm. At this time, my son was in a catatonic state that soon went into a cycle of violent and frightening hallucinations. Every 15 to 20 minutes he would come out of his coma like state screaming in fear and unaware of his surroundings. He was seeing gruesome monsters trying to attack him and hurt him.

Jake had to be held to prevent him from pulling off the leads during these terrifying episodes. His vital signs were highly irregular during this time. I started asking, if there was a way to have the pharmacy opened.
At approximately 3:00 am November 1. 2015. I was holding my son. He had a grand mal seizure lasting about 3 minutes. It was one of the most frightening things I have ever seen. Until this past June, when we I saw him suffer for 7 hours and die!The decision was made by the doctor on staff to have my son transported by “Flight for Life” to Children’s Hospital Colorado Anschutz medical campus. My son was given Ativan to prevent seizures and outbursts on the flight.

During the flight, around 4 am, I left a message on Good Day’s Pharmacy’s voice mail, demanding they find what the error was in the prescription. I was screaming on the phone,”There is something wrong with the prescription you made for him!” When we arrived at the intensive care unit. Jake was subjected to another battery of tests, including his first Cat Scan. His condition continued to deteriorate. He was placed on an EEG to monitor his brain waves to check for hidden seizure activity. I WAS DEMANDING EVERY 15 MINUTES FOR SOMEONE TO PICK UP THE PHONE AND CALL THE PHARMACY AND FIND OUT WHAT WAS IN THE BOTTLE! (no emergency after hours number was on the voicemail)

I asked many, many, times about reversals for Clonidine. I kept getting told, there was none. I even went to the hospital library to use their computer, and I went outside to find a stronger signal for my cell phone. In my profession, we reverse patients and detox them after overdoses. I found very quickly, that Narcan/naloxone has been used in clonidine overdoses in the past in several well cited publications. I quickly started asking the doctors, if we could use Narcan. I was told, “no”. Over and over again.

Jake’s cycle of hallucinations and catatonic states continued. Eventually my son lost all ability to speak and would just scream in terror. A second Cat Scan was ordered and there was evidence of brain swelling. No words can explain the devastation we felt at that moment.

The doctors began to try to reverse the brain swelling with a hypertonic saline solution only. They did not use steroids to reduce the brain swelling, Why? Because no one would pick up the phone and have the pharmacy opened. Not one single doctor even considered Narcan. The hospital didn’t want to use steroids, because they continued to assume it must be an infection. One phone call would have stopped this! Since, the pharmacy was closed (and no one would pick up the phone to have the pharmacy opened)with no way to confirm the contents of the prescription my son was subjected to many unnecessary painful tests to rule out other causes. Even with no history of illness, Meningitis was still in their minds, again with no prior symptoms. The decision was made to treat Jake with the antibiotics for this. These antibiotics had risk to my son’s kidney’s and his blood work had to be monitored closely.

In the early evening of November 1, 2015. The doctors informed me that Jake’s sinus node was failing and that they needed to start a drug to regain a normal heart rhythm, but Jake’s condition continued to decline. Later that morning, when an actual cardiologist was on duty we were informed that the medication was not necessary, it was his heart normal response to protect itself. The medication was stopped.

About 8:00pm that evening, Amy Clevenger DR.0054027, decided an MRI and a lumbar tap were needed to see why Jake was not improving. Late that night Jake was sedated and an intubation tube was placed to maintain Jake’s airway for the MRI and lumbar puncture.

The lumbar puncture was delayed for over an hour with my son intubated in the room, because the staff got busy. They were also waiting for an attending physician or student to show up, to show them how to correctly do a lumbar puncture. At times, my son was left without medical supervision while he was under intubation, sometimes without even a nurse at the desk and, only me to monitor my own child under anesthesia.

At about 2:00 am November 2, 2015 Amy Clevenger informed us, that Jake had abnormal areas in the brain that could be consistent with a condition known as “PRES”, caused by sudden and traumatic injury to the brain, or a rare degenerative demyelinating sheath disorder.

Both of which could mean my son would never be normal again and may not survive. (Just to inform the public, drug overdoses can cause “PRES”) It was a pain that I could not describe.

I was shattered into a million pieces. I SCREAMED AT AMY CLEVENGER OVER AND OVER ”NO IT IS THE CLONIDINE! STOP CHASING ZEBRAS, STOP TREATING AND TORTURING MY SON FOR THE WRONG THING! IT IS THE CLONIDINE!” I BEGGED, “JUST PICK UP THE PHONE AND WAKE UP THE PHARMACY OWNERS.”

I could not imagine how we could leave the hospital without my bright beautiful boy.
Would I never hear his sweet voice again.
How he would never speak or know who I was. It was the darkest moment of my life, one that I relive every hour of everyday! Now replaced by the memory of the horrific day he died .
I went back into the room and I crawled into bed with my son and held him close.
I kept saying to him,”I needed him and to fight! How much I needed and loved him.”
A few hours went by and Jake started to slowly respond.**I felt him move, I looked down and Jake said, “Hi Mommy” The single greatest moment of my life. I could not believe it!!!**

At about 1:00pm I believe. I received a call from Good Day Pharmacy. The same man I had spoken to on Saturday. He then told me the mistake that had been made. The prescription had been compounded at 1000 times the proper dose. Not 0.03 mg per 2 ml but, 30 mg per 2 ml we were told by Good Day it was made by, I could not even speak. At that point I realized how close I came to losing my son.

The horror occurred to me, that had this been a night time medication, I could have awakened to find my son dead in his bed. The fear set in of what could be the long term damage to my son’s life? I politely, thanked the man for delivering the news. A few hours laterVicki Einhellig RPh, one of the pharmacy owners called to show her concern and express how bad the pharmacist felt Vicki said, it was Pharmacist Tomi Folkestad PHA 0015850. and that she was so good she used to work at PVH hospital. It was no comfort to me! SOMEONE had made the prescription 1000 times the concentration.

After months of lying it was found that a licensed pharmacist NEVER made my son’s prescription. An unlicensed person either Courtney Lawson or Nicole Peterson, mixed my baby’s prescription 1000 times to strong! The label on the bottle says: filled by NP. I spent every minute of every day wondering if my son would survive!

We were released on November 3, 2015 in the evening. with no follow up care needed at all! according to Children’s Hospital Colorado.
They did say, continued withdrawal symptoms would occur. I called both Jake’s pediatrician at the time and Children’s Hospital Colorado several times in the 72 hours and we got home. They also told me, I could resume Jake’s normal Clonidine dose. I never did! I consulted with the original prescribing doctor and asked, “Can we stop the use of Clonidine?”. He said, “Yes.” We refused to put our son on any drug after that. That Wednesday and Thursday Jake was vomiting and had the shakes. He had horrible pain from the lumbar tap. Yet again, I was transferred from the pediatrician’s office to CHC back and forth. One saying, I should call the other for answers.
My son was afraid to sleep alone after this. I was afraid to sleep at all.
He woke with nightmares almost every night. He was forever changed by this. AS WAS HIS MOTHER!

1) IF IT IS A CHILD, AND AN UNKNOWN CAUSE OF DEATH THE TISSUES ARE TO BE PRESERVED FOREVER!2) IF THERE IS AN OPEN DEATH INVESTIGATION, TISSUES ARE EVIDENCE AND TO BE PRESERVED!3) BY LAW, AS JAKE’S MOTHER AND SOLE REPRESENTATIVE ON HIS ESTATE. THE TISSUES ARE “PROPERTY” RIGHTFULLY MINE TO HAVE AND BE INDEPENDENTLY TESTED.

DURING THE NEARLY 5 MONTHS IT TOOK TO COMPLETE A “UNKNOWN CAUSE” DEATH CERTIFICATE, I HAD DAILY CONTACT WITH THE CORNER!

WERE ANY OF THE TESTS EVEN RUN ON MY SON’S TISSUES? I HAVE GREAT DOUBTS ANY OF THE TESTS WERE RUN ON MY SON’S TISSUES. AGAIN I ASK? WHERE ARE MY SON’S TISSUES? WHO’S TISSUES WERE USED IN HIS PLACE?!

Detective Henry Stucky and the Larimer Country Coroner have refused to respond to me or any of my phone calls, emails for months. Detective Stucky will however tell news channels there is an open death investigation.

Jake’s autopsy and death certificate took a near record-breaking 5 months to issue. I became extremely concerned and started demanding a list of tissues samples taken from the office in about July of 2016. I kept getting told by Dianne Fairman “the pathologist” had not got back to her. This went on for weeks.

I should mention Jake tested negative for ALL blood bacteria and viruses while the coroner still had Jake’s body! As you will see in the text messages.

Dianne made it seem the “pathologist” was in Denver or somewhere. I was shocked to find out, it was Mr. Wilkerson the Larimer County Coroner in the same building with her!!

****IN AUGUST OF 2016, I BEGAN TO SEARCH FOR A SECOND PRIVATE AUTOPSY TO BE PERFORMED. I WAS MET WITH GREAT RESISTANCE THAT I WAS REQUESTING MY SON’S SAMPLES BE SHIPPED****

I finally secured an independent pathologist. My pathologist wanted fresh cuts sent. The coroner’s office began stalling and not shipping the samples.

I called Dianne Fairman very upset. She said, we are having to go through Jake’s samples by hand. I was furious, I said “After 4 months my son’s tissues should be labeled in gold!!”

I started calling other coroner offices across the country and they were telling me, this did not seem right. I filed a formal complaint against the Larimer County Coroner with the National Association of Medical Examiner’s in September 2016, for un-ethical behavior.

*I am emailing the detective and the coroner none stop. Something is suspicious. The coroner’s office delayed shipping for weeks.

*My son’s autopsy report was released about October 23, 2016. Nearly 4 months and 3 weeks after his death.

*A letter to preserve was sent to the coroner on November 23, 2016.

**This is very important I left Jake’s body at the coroner extra days, over 2 weeks. Jake died on the 8th, I did not cremate until the June 22.

*I called the corner everyday telling them to take EXTRA samples of every and a lot of them before I cremated. Dianne Fairman assured me and said, don’t worry Caroline we took a bunch of samples you can cremate not worry.

IT HAS BEEN CONFIRMED MY SON’S TISSUE SAMPLES WHEREABOUTS ARE UNKNOWN!!

In a previous post. I included emails to coroner. Below you will find screen shots of text messages with the corner spanning from June 2016 to October 2016. I put the last texts first, when I knew something was going terribly wrong:

CORRUPTION AND CORONER’S APPEARS TO BE MORE COMMON THAN PEOPLE REALIZE, ESPECIALLY AROUND A WRONGFUL DEATH THAT TOOK PLACE IN A HOSPITAL.

CORONERS & CORRUPTION

It may come as a surprise to you, but accidental deaths occur in American hospitals at an alarming rate. At the end of 1999, the highly respected (“IOM”), a division of the National Academy of Sciences, issued a report in which it estimated that there are 98,000 accidental deaths in American hospitals each year, equating to about 15% of the hospital population. That means that there may be about 15,000 accidental deaths per year in hospitals in America.

Ninety-Eight Thousand accidental deaths is more than twice as many as the number of people killed by cars. It’s as if 400 Boeing jets- each with about 250 passengers went down every year. Imagine the fervor over that.

One of the reasons that the accidental death rate is so high and why there is no public outcry is Hospitals, doctors, and nurses keep a lid on it. If word got out, that would be “bad for business.” Secrecy and “double-record keeping” are encouraged by state laws that, in almost all states, forbid disclosure of any of the information gathered in a process known as “peer review.” This takes place in a hospital after a patient death or injury that has been caused by a mistake. Doctors, nurses and hospital administrators look at what happened and try to prevent it from occurring again, but because the process is secret, there is no independent, public review of the accident’s causes or of the medical establishment’s remedy.

While state and federal laws require that a patient’s true course and treatment be recorded in the patient’s medical records, when a mistake results in death or injury, the patients’ medical records are routinely rewritten, or information about what happened is omitted from the patient’s record, or both.

The result is “double record keeping.” There are the peer review records, which accurately reflect what occurred; and there are the patient’s records, which are usually falsified.

The report, To Err Is Human, describes a “culture of secrecy” which envelops these tragic mistakes. Because of this secrecy, the Institute could only estimate the number of accidental deaths in hospitals. Neither the Institute nor anyone, else knows the true number of accidental deaths which occur in hospitals in the United States. County Coroners and County Medical Examiners play a role in keeping accidental deaths in hospitals secret. Coroners are charged by law to investigate accidental or suspicious deaths on behalf of the public. Public knowledge of why someone has died is extremely important in a democratic society. If a person can die from undisclosed causes, individual liberty is at risk. A hallmark of totalitarian societies is the fact that a person may lose his life without public knowledge of the true circumstances of death.

With regard to accidental deaths which occur in hospitals, however, Coroners are first and foremost politicians. They are elected office holders, and no politician ever fattened his campaign coffers or won votes by wrangling with hospitals and doctors. Hospitals are generally loved by the community, and they are also large employers. Physicians comprise one of the most powerful interest groups in our society. A Coroner who attempts to expose an accidental death that a hospital wants to conceal will not win any friends.

Further, Coroners usually do not have any kind of medical degree. They are not “forensic pathologists.” Forensic pathology is the study of human tissues and fluids to determine the cause of death. Because Coroners are not professional forensic pathologists, they are unlikely to have the same degree of professional interest in the science of forensic pathology as physicians who have trained for several years in that science. A Coroner may lack the wherewithal to determine whether the forensic pathology being performed by the Coroner’s Department agents on behalf of the public is adequate. While citizens can be certain that their County Coroner wants to assist law enforcement in apprehending and convicting criminals, they can be just as certain that their County Coroner will be very reluctant and very unlikely to apply the same diligence in trying to discover that a patient died from a mistake in a hospital. Here are some examples of what I am talking about.